Scripture

 Dear friends, I warn you as “temporary residents and foreigners” to keep away from worldly desires that wage war against your very souls.

~1 Peter 2:11, NLT

Quote

God has a tender regard for the souls of men and is infinitely willing to promote their souls welfare.

~Henry Scougal {Life of God: Souls of Men}

Many people confuse Canaan with heaven. They see Egypt as our lost condition: enslavement to the devil. Then the wilderness is life {a time of trials and testing} and Canaan as heaven the land of rest or heaven. This is a faulty analogy. Canaan is the land of conflict and conquest. Canaan is our battle ground. Paul made it clear in Ephesians 6, Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on all of God’s armor so that you will be able to stand firm against all strategies of the devil. For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places. The Christians life is not a cruise ship, it is a battle ship. It is an on going, never ending conflict. Yes, there is some heaven along the way: worship is a foretaste of glory divine. Good Christians fellowship is a taste of the fruits of heaven but we must not forget, we have a common enemy and he does not relent.

When we think of enemies, we are prone to thing dems, libs, Muslims, Communists, in-laws or maybe even spouse. We are thinking about flesh and blood enemies but they are not the real enemy. In pastoring churches, there is always the devil’s advocate, that one old cantankerous deacon who opposes everything you try to do. This is why so many preachers play golf. They visualize the golf ball as that old cantankerous deacon. Truth is–He is a pain in the rear but he is not the enemy. God put him there to expose your real enemies. The old bent out of shape deacon is a horse fly, he can’t hurt you but if you don’t deal with the real enemy, he may get you so perturbed that you hurt yourself. Now we do have enemies without but today I want to focus on the enemies within. I am talking about the enemies that war against our soul. I am talking about pride, lust, greed, envy, fear, doubt, inordinate love for ourselves. Scrougal refers to this struggle as the “Holy Wars.” His belief was: by the grace of God and the help of the Holy Spirit, we can defeat these foes.

Think of WW2 where they had multiple battles going on in Europe at the same time. If you are with Patton in the 3rd Army, you are not thinking about how to cross the beach in Normandy. It works both ways, if you are about to land on the beach of Normandy, you are not worried about keeping up with Patton’s tanks. Each of us as individuals has our own personal conflict. It is perfectly OK to pray for the soldiers in other division but one must concentrate on the enemy at hand. I spend no time worrying about what I am going to do with the devil’s advocate. God may have placed them in my life to help me in my battle with pride. Trust me, I battle pride, fear, lust and inordinate love for myself. To be honest with you: my concern is to conquer these enemies that war against my soul. Whereas I don’t spend time thinking about the A-Holes {those who love to say demeaning, discouraging and disparaging things}, I do pray for those who are struggling along beside me in the battle for the soul.

Extra

Good weather. I sure like it when it doesn’t get above 90. Today is hump day for you working folks. Everyday is Friday for those of us who are retired but I can remember what it was like. Remember we have some friends in crisis and it is not all physical suffering. Greed is a spiritual cancer that eats away at the souls of men. Many have exchanged their soul for money. Pray for those caught in the conflict but pray for our cancer warriors as well. Team Guatemala will be home late Saturday night. Josh and Joe David are going be worn out but it will be good to get them home.

I hope you have a great day and thanks for reading the blog.